No, Georgia’s Pro-Life Law Was Not Responsible for the Deaths of Two Moms

Two years ago, 28-year-old Amber Thurman and 41-year-old Candi Miller, both of Georgia, died after contracting sepsis within days of taking the abortion pill.

Recent headlines, stemming from two ProPublica reports, have now asserted that Thurman and Miller’s deaths were preventable and that pro-life legislation was to blame.

Pro-life advocates mourn along with Amber’s and Candi’s families. And we must also take this opportunity to share the truth and confront the rampant pro-abortion misinformation.

• Pro-life advocates are for protecting babies and moms equally. No one wants to see something like this happen.
  • Amber and Candi both deserved so much better than dying from abortion pill side effects.
    
• Pro-life laws do not prohibit treatment in medical emergencies.
  • Georgia, along with every state with laws limiting abortion, clearly defines abortion as the intentional termination of an otherwise developing human being in the womb. Every state with abortion limits holds exceptions to save the life of the mother.
    
• The abortion pill, not pro-life laws, killed Amber Thurman and Candi Miller.
  • Amber received the abortion pill from a clinic in North Carolina when she was 9 weeks pregnant with twins.
  • Candi ordered the abortion pill online.
  • Amber and Candi both completed the chemical abortion regimen by taking mifepristone and misoprostol. But both women experienced “incomplete abortions”: the remains of their unborn children were not fully expelled. Amber and Candi both developed sepsis, a serious potential side effect that is listed on the FDA’s warning label.
  • Medical staff failed to perform surgery for Amber until it was too late.
  • Candi died at home with a lethal cocktail of drugs, including fentanyl, in her body. A coroner said she did not seek medical help due to fears about the state’s pro-life law.
    • To date, at least 11 women have reportedly died from sepsis following consumption of mifepristone, according to the FDA.
    • A 2009 study from Finland found that chemical abortions were associated with an adverse reaction rate four times that of surgical abortions, including an increased risk of hemorrhage and incomplete abortion.
    • Per the FDA, roughly 85% of women who take mifepristone and misoprostol report at least one adverse reaction. Up to 8% of women reportedly experience bleeding for more than 30 days, and between 2.9–4.6% visit the emergency room after taking the drugs, though contributing circumstances may exist.

• Pro-abortion propagandists have spread baseless fears about pro-life laws
  • While a cause of death has not been officially determined in Candi’s case, the coroner suggested that she failed to seek medical care because of unfounded fears pertaining to the state’s pro-life law. 
  • But care for her would have been fully legal.
  • Misinformation spread by the pro-abortion industry and pro-abortion politicians lead women and hospital staff to fear that medical care to save a woman’s life violates the law when it clearly does not.
  • These fears can cost lives.

• Experts have determined that Amber’s and Candi’s deaths were “preventable.” But any reasonable analysis shows that Georgia’s pro-life law was not at fault.
  • Necessary removal of fetuses or embryos who have already died – as had occurred in both Amber’s and Candi’s cases – is legal in every state that has laws protecting the unborn, including Georgia. 
  • It’s unclear why hospital staff hesitated to perform surgery in Amber’s case, but intervention to save Amber’s life was clearly not illegal. 
  • It is vitally important that women and hospital staff are fully aware of what pro-life laws really say.
  • Both Candi’s and Amber’s cases also underscore the serious risks posed by self-managed chemical abortions.

“Amber Thurman’s tragic death, recently covered by multiple news organizations, was caused by side effects of legal abortion drugs and medical negligence, not pro-life laws,” saysDr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and a board-certified OB-GYN with 20 years of medical experience.

“The tragic deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller in Georgia demonstrate conclusively how dangerous medically unsupervised, ‘self-managed’ abortion drugs are… Both women suffered failed abortions requiring surgical treatment…. Physicians must be aware of this risk and swiftly intervene,” says Ingrid Skop, M.D., FACOG, a board-certified OB-GYN who serves as vice president and director of medical affairs at Charlotte Lozier Institute.

The deaths of Amber and Candi were avoidable tragedies.

But they were not a result of pro-life laws.

In fact, it’s just the opposite: their deaths were caused by the abortion pills they were prescribed, along with tragic negligence at the hands of hospital staff in Amber’s case and failure to obtain medical help in Candi’s situation.

Instead of proving that laws aimed at protecting moms and babies should be repealed, these stories prove in urgent detail the necessity of restoring safeguards on abortion pills and ensuring that women and medical staff know what pro-life laws really say, contrary to the misinformation spread by the abortion industry.

Additional Resources:

Fact Sheet: What is Chemical Abortion?
Report: Telehealth Abortions Key Factor in Rising Post-Dobbs Abortion Numbers
US Supreme Court Rejects Case Against Abortion Pill Mifepristone

Oregon Right to Life believes in the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death. Abortion ends the life of a genetically distinct, growing human being. We oppose abortion at any point of gestation. In rare cases, a mother may have a life threatening condition in which medical procedures intended to treat the condition of the mother may result in the unintended death of her preborn baby. At the same time, ORTL recognizes that modern medical practice has and will continue to increase the ability to save both the life of the mother and the baby. Read this and all of our position statements here.